Racial Disproportionality as Experienced by Educators of Color

Abstract

The purpose of this individual study was to address the gap in research and answer the following research question:  How do educators of color perceive the evaluation process and its impact on their professional growth and development?  It was part of a larger group case study that sought to capture the perceptions of educators of color related to racial disproportionality and its impact on the educator pipeline and schools.  As educators of color work to maintain a presence within the educational system, it is essential to study how perceived biases related to race may impact the evaluation process. This single case study attempted to capture how five administrators of color and five teachers of color employed by the Cityside Public School District perceived the evaluation process used within their district.  Additionally, a document review of union contracts was used to ascertain the evaluation process used by Cityside. The Critical Race Theory tenets of permanence of racism, counter storytelling and critique of liberalism provided a theoretical framework to analyze the responses given by each participant who participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that the majority of the participants do not believe the evaluation process has improved their growth and development.  Other findings revealed that the racial identity and the level of cultural competency of the evaluator impacted whether or not participants believed their race was a factor in how they were evaluated.